Chapter 4 - The Terrible Wrath of the Arinfax Colossus (s. 9)
4.3 The party is set adrift into the great, wide world
The party heads up to the next level of the watchtower and is relieved to see windows on this floor. Even better, the windows seem to be fairly high off of the ground, giving the party hope that they may be near the top of the tower. This floor consists of a large circular room. Two strange arcane symbols are inscribed in the floor on either side of the room, and a series of columns lines the back of the room. Invicto draws on his arcane training to vaguely identify the inscribed runes as some type of summoning circles.
Defeat is in the Eye of the Beholder
The party advances cautiously into the room, ready for the next trap or guardian to spring on them. Shortly after filing through the door, they are not disappointed. Two huge creatures magically appear on the far side of the room, in front of the row of columns – floating heads, each with one large central eye, a gaping maw of sharpened teeth, and several additional eyes on the ends of a number of wriggling eye stalks protruding from the heads. The party immediately recognizes these twisted creatures as beholders, a legendary monster that has spelled the end of many a hero. Fortunately, Erik remembers from his arcane studies that these particular beholders are beholder gauths, the weakest breed of the strange eye creatures. But the weakest of the breed still makes for a formidable opponent.
The beholders seem to have been summoned into the room, but Erik and Invicto did not sense that the inscribed arcane circles on the floor activated in any way. They glance at each other nervously, recognizing that there may be more to this room than it has offered thus far.
The Zaza rushes to engage one of the beholders, landing a solid blow on the beast and calling her divine challenge down upon it. The beholders then each utter an arcane phrase and the inscribed circles on the floor glow as two massive, vicious-looking beetles appear within each summoning circle, making four beetles in all. The giant, twisted insects immediately start emitting a piercing chittering sound. The sound is annoying at a distance, but as the chittering beetles close on the party members, they find that being next to the sound is unavoidably distracting. The high-pitched chittering reverberates in the party members’ skulls when the beetles are near them, causing some of the party’s attacks to miss their mark. The four beetles fan out and strike at The Zaza, Invicto, Fargrim, and Erik. Besides the annoying chittering sounds, they are not too threatening as combatants, but they manage to scratch at a few of the party members successfully.
After summoning the beetles, the beholders turn their eyes towards the party. Each beholder launches a magical ray out of its central eye, as well as two rays from their various eye stalks. Fargrim is immobilized at the far end of the battlefield, unable to engage the second beholder. One beholder attempts to use a telekinetic ray to move The Zaza away from its ally, but the blast sails wide. Invicto is hit with a sleep ray and he feels his feet slow and his eyes grow heavy as he tries to shake off the effect. Erik is simply blasted with a magical jet of flame, and The Zaza is hit with an exhaustion ray – dealing some damage to the dragonborn and weakening her.
Fargrim, rooted to the ground by one of the beholders’ eye rays, hacks at the chittering beetle in front of him but isn’t able to get past the creature’s flailing insectoid limbs. Invicto manages to fight off the effects of the sleep ray and stays conscious. He steps back from the beetle clawing at him and launches a massive blast of arcane energy at one of the beholders, causing it to squeal in pain.
But the worst is yet to come for the watchtower guardians. Erik, the admittedly frail wizard, sees an opportunity and summons every ounce of his courage to capitalize on it. He strides determinedly into the middle of the battlefield, enduring the scratching claws of a chittering beetle as he does so. In the middle of the melee, the wizard is surrounded on all sides by monsters. He recites the incantations for one of his most devastating spells, and a shroud of fire explodes out in all directions from the wizard. It envelopes every enemy on the battlefield, but leaves Erik’s allies unscathed. All four chittering beetles are burned to a crisp by the blast and the beholders are charred by the searing flames as well, though they are still standing (floating actually). They now each turn a number of angry eyes upon the wizard.
Though The Zaza continues hacking away at one of the beholders, the floating heads each turn their attention to Erik, and each launches a jet of flame at the wizard. After unleashing his devastating fire shroud, Erik himself is engulfed in flame, and it is more than the wizard can withstand. He crumples to the ground, his robes smoking. The beholders then each utter an arcane phrase once again, and the summoning circles light up with magical energy as four more chittering beetles appear.
Fargrim refuses to let the tide of battle turn against the party. He shouts some strong words of encouragement at Erik to pull him back to reality and the wizard regains consciousness. He then charges the beholder not engaged by The Zaza and lands a devastating hammer blow on the beast. He delivers a profanity-laden tirade at the monster as he hits it, and the dwarf’s aggressiveness inspires his allies to fight even harder as they find new reserves of energy to draw upon.
The Zaza does her best impression of Erik as she steps back to engulf several enemies in flame with her dragon breath. She steps on the arcane runes of one of the summoning circles as she does and receives a jolt of arcane energy, but the hardy dragonborn shrugs off the pain. A couple more beetles are burned to a crisp and another beholder suffers even more stinging burns. Erik, having regained consciousness thanks to Fargrim’s urging, stands up and continues to heat the battlefield. He summons a flaming sphere to harass the beholders. Invicto piles on with the Flames of Phlegethos and one of the beholders drops lifeless to the floor. The remaining beholder now looks like it has been standing in the center of an inferno for a time, as it is blackened and charred from the party’s numerous fire attacks. It doesn’t take long before the beast is finished, along with the remaining chittering beetles.
The party’s reserves of energy have dwindled even further, and a few of the party members have little strength left for another fight. Nonetheless, the party presses on to the next floor, and, thankfully, they find that they have reached the top of the watchtower.
Finally on Top
The party cautiously shuffles into the top room of the watchtower and finds that there seems to be no guardians or traps awaiting them here. Most of the room is large and open, though a good portion of the room is taken up by what the party assumes is the massive Energy Array. The machine is a massive bundle of brass pripes and strange glass chambers with swirling elemental magics. The piping actually extends down into the floor of the room and the party can see that some of the pipes run far down into the earth, likely tapping some source of elemental magic. One final pipe extends out of the roof of the watchtower, angling to the south, which the party assumes is the firing barrel of the device. The huge metal contraption does have a user station with a number of controls and dials.
The top floor features a huge domed ceiling, and most of the southern half of that dome is transparent. Upon further examination, the party finds the section is crafted of thick, heavy crystal that has clearly been magically enchanted. The crystal surface acts as a ‘view screen’ that can be zoomed into great distances to magnify far away places. With the watchtower’s perch in the mountains, it has a clear view of the plains to the south, including Verind’s Edge. The view screen is currently focused in on the city of Verind’s Edge, and the party gets a clear picture of the current situation.
The goblinoid army has arrived and swarms the hills outside the western wall of Verind’s Edge. Orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, ogres, and all other manner of twisted, evil creatures stand outside the gates of the city. The army numbers in the thousands – a horde the likes of which the party has never seen before. Battle has not been engaged yet, as the sprawling army waits for the Arinfax Colossus to assault the walls. The party can see that the massive elemental titan has arrived and is charging the walls of the city. They seem to have arrived just in time as the creature is literally only minutes from smashing into the walls of Verind’s Edge.
The party quickly attempts to figure out how to operate the Energy Array. Erik and Invicto recognize some of the arcane scripts on the control panels of the machine and they are able to power it up. The machine has a simple targeting mechanism that seems to interface with the crystal view screen in the tower. They are able to use the controls to move around the focus of the view screen to target anything they can see. There are also several dials labeled with numbers that Erik and Invicto believe need to be set to adjust the mix of elemental energies being funneled into the magical blast from the Energy Array. Jarrob mentioned having to set the ‘elemental harmonics’ of the machine just right in order to penetrate the defenses of the Arinfax Colossus. As a creature of the Abyss, the Arinfax Colossus embodies elemental chaos and its powerful magical defenses are constantly changing and shifting. The Energy Array must have the mix of elemental magics just right in order to penetrate the Colossus’s defenses, though that mix could change at any moment if the Colossus’s defenses change.
Of course, the correct mix of energies changing is the least of the party’s worries, as Erik and Invicto have no idea how to currently analyze the Colossus’s magical defenses to find the correct mix anyway. If they had hours to study the machine further they might be able to figure it out, but at this point they have only seconds before the elemental behemoth arrives at the city walls. They look down desperately at the controls – three sets of three gold dials, for a total of nine dials. Each one has flowing elven script around the dial indicating the numbers one through nine. The dials are currently set to 111-111-111, but they can’t imagine they are lucky enough for this to be the correct setting.
A Colossal End
Fargrim, peeking over the magic-users’ shoulders is struck by the, until now, very confusing prophecy he received from the blind prophet of Io, Missyus,
371-529-144…
He shoves the arcane experts aside, insisting that his dwarven know-how has told him how to set the machine’s dials correctly (of course, he doesn’t mention the prophecy he received at all). Erik and Invicto, having no better ideas, let Fargrim take the controls with the Arinfax Colossus only a few steps away from the western wall of Verind’s Edge. As quickly as possible, the grizzled dwarven warlord sets the dials and targets the Colossus in the view screen. He fires a shot just as the elemental titan arrives at the walls of the city with its fists raised.
The party hears the Energy Array hum with elemental magics, and sees energy flowing through some of the glass chambers of the device, but a bright, white bolt of magical energy suddenly fires out into the back of the room. The party looks aghast at where the shot came out and sees that a junction in one of the pipes has become dislodged somehow. No shot is fired out of the tower, so the Arinfax Colossus assaults Verind’s Edge without interference. The elemental creature brings down its huge stone fists and the walls of the city are as sturdy as straw beneath the Arinfax Colossus’s terrible strength. Men and stone crash to the ground in a pile of rubble and death as the goblinoid army hoots and cries with glee. The forces of Verind’s Edge along the remaining walls begin fleeing from the massive stone creature, though the party can see Emperor Essran standing on the wall near the Colossus desperately trying to rally his men. Court Wizard Davos stands near the emperor futilely hurling arcane magics at the elemental terror. All of his attacks are harmlessly rebuffed by the Colossus’s magical defenses.
Erik and Invicto quickly assess the broken junction in the Energy Array. With this one pipe disconnected, any blast of energy that is generated is unable to continue flowing through the machine to make it out of the watchtower to the device’s target. Erik and Invicto’s arcane training suggests to them that the pipe could simply be held together to let the energy flow through the machine correctly. However, when the bolt of energy passes through the junction, whoever is holding the pipe together will get a signficant shock. They don’t think the shock would be lethal, but it certainly wouldn’t be pleasant. With little time to debate, The Zaza rushes to the junction to hold the pipes together.
Fargrim quickly refocuses the view screen to target the Arinfax Colossus again and fires another shot. As the bolt rushes through the machine it passes the junction The Zaza holds together. The dragonborn endures a massive electric shock that throws her across the room, but the bolt of energy passes through the junction successfully and rushes out of the tower. Unfortunately, in his rush to retarget the machine for another shot, Fargrim did not align the view screen accurately and the shot barely misses the Colossus.
He retargets the device as The Zaza picks herself up, shakes off the dizzy feeling humming in her skull, and rushes across the room to hold the pipe together again. The Colossus continues to decimate the walls of Verind’s Edge and the party looks on in horror as the creature brings its fists down on the section of wall where Emperor Essran and the wizard Davos stand. The heart of the Empire of Nerath meets a swift and brutal end as it falls into the mounting pile of rubble, stone, and corpses at the feet of the Arinfax Colossus. Fargrim carefully targets the device for a third time, and The Zaza is again blown across the room as the bolt of energy passes through the junction she holds together. She slumps on the floor, barely hanging on to consciousness.
The party watches through the view screen with their breath held as the shot from the Energy Array arrives. This time it strikes true and the bright, white bolt of energy easily passes through the Arinfax Colossus’s defenses. The creature jerks up and becomes filled with an intense light. Cracks begin appearing all along its stone exterior and bright rays of white light shoot out of every widening crack. The cracks rapidly expand and multiply until the creature is nothing more than a shapeless collection of stones, and suddenly the white light filling the elemental creature disappears and the Colossus falls to the ground as a pile of fine rubble. In the blink of an eye the terrible monstrosity is gone.
A Hole in the Wall
However, the damage the Colossus did is not undone. A massive hole stands in the walls of Verind’s Edge, the Emperor is dead, and most of the city’s forces have fled the area where the Colossus stood. The goblinoid army is stunned at the loss of the Arinfax Colossus, but the bloodthirsty creatures quickly realize the opportunity that is presented to them. They rush through the opening in the walls the elemental titan created and begin spreading through the city. The forces of Verind’s Edge rally at the sight of the Colossus’s destruction, but their defenses have been significantly crippled.
The party watches helplessly as the battle rages. Erik and Invicto investigate the Energy Array further to see if they can use the device to target the forces of the goblinoid army, but they find that the magical energy leaving the array is much to uniquely refined to be of any effect. The device can carefully dissipate the chaotic elemental magics holding together a titan of the Abyss, but it has no other effect on anything that is targeted – from living creature to inanimate rock.
Fargrim has seen many battles, and he has no doubt about the outcome of this contest. With well-defended walls to stand behind, Verind’s Edge likely could have held out against a siege from an army of this size for months – probably long enough for the goblinoid army to lose its will and dissipate back into the Torin Plains, defeated. However, with the goblinoid forces running rampant through the city, their numbers will unquestionably overwhelm the forces of Verind’s Edge. The party is desperate to help, but they are several days travel from Verind’s Edge. With the walls breached, Fargrim doesn’t expect the battle to last through the night. A quiet, somber mood comes over the party as they realize their home, and indeed the very life they have known for many years, is totally lost.
The Last Soldier
The party is drained from the gauntlet of battles and traps they just fought their way through. The Zaza in particular tends to the scorched wounds on her hands where she held the dislodged pipe of the Energy Array together. The entire party rests for a time in stunned silence, but eventually they pick themselves up to at least look around the rest of the watchtower. Most notably, there is an armored skeleton of a dwarf slumped in one corner of the room. It appears to have been the last soldier stationed in the watchtower, now centuries dead. He was impressively equipped with a magical warhammer, magical plate armor, magical gauntlets, and a magical belt that are all well-preserved. The party also finds some kind of magical key on the soldier’s neck as well as a journal in a satchel nearby.
They flip through the last few entries of the journal and piece together some interesting information. The dwarven soldier appears to have been stationed in the watchtower nearly a thousand years ago. The journal speaks of the recent fall of Verind’s Edge to the goblinoids of the Torin Plains (though between then and now Verind’s Edge was reclaimed by the people of the Boundary Lands before falling to the goblinoid tribes once again roughly a hundred years ago). The journal also speaks of civil war recently breaking out within the dwarven nation of Arnathon, which is how the party is able to place the soldier’s last days as roughly a thousand years ago. The soldier speaks of how the fall of Verind’s Edge and the civil war in Arnathon have resulted in political bickering about who should staff and maintain this watchtower. The other soldiers stationed in the tower left to seek aid from the dwarven clans and from other cities in the Boundary Lands, though the soldier is worried something may have happened to them on their journey as they have not returned for months now. The party assumes the soldier’s fears were confirmed as clearly no aid ever returned to the tower. The soldier writes of being concerned that there will be no one to relieve him if he passes, and it appears he was correct.
The soldier also writes extensively in the journal about his concerns for the dwarven nation of Arnathon. The king of Arnathon died with no heir and no siblings, and civil war broke out as various clans tried to claim the throne. The soldier writes,
“I fear the only means to resolve the situation is by retrieving the famed Hammer of Tharmak, an ancient dwarven relic gifted from Moradin himself that was used to decide who would receive the kingship when civil war threatened Arnathon some seven centuries ago [now roughly seventeen centuries ago from the party’s time]. Unfortunately, the Hammer was entombed with the dwarven King Maldrug, and was lost when the dwarven clan of Hammer Hand had to flee their homeland when it was overrun by monsters some 300 years ago [now roughly 1,300 years ago from the party’s time]. Since I have nothing but time on my hands, I requested a number of tomes from the sages in the Quinalyn city of Arastur, as well as some dwarven tomes from my homeland. I’ve pieced together what clues I could find about the lost home of the clan of Hammer Hand. Like any great dwarven tomb, King Maldrug’s was well defended, and I can only hope it is still undisturbed.”
The journal includes many cryptic notes about the location of the Hammer Hand clan and the guards on King Maldrug’s tomb. The Hammer Hand clan appears to have been located in the mountains northeast of the Boundary Lands near the Northern Ice Sheet. Fargrim knows dwarves used to inhabit that area, but they were run out by monsters many centuries ago. Surprisingly, Invicto recognizes the symbol of the Hammer Hand clan. He saw it on the breastplate of one of the Dead Hand Bandits. Of course, the dwarven nation of Arnathon is still not united. While there is no standing civil war, the dwarves of Arnathon exist only as separate, independent clans that occassionally war with one another.
Exploring the Tower
The party also finds a small passage leading out of the back of the room to a spiral staircase heading down. The stairs extend back into the watchtower, passing beside the numerous floors the party fought their way through. About halfway down, once the party has travelled back into the rock surrounding the base of the tower, a side passage extends out from the spiral staircase. The party follows it to find the remains of an old barracks. Some of the items have remained well-preserved in the still, underground environment, but mostly the party just finds dusty piles of crumpled sheets and rotting wood.
Passing the barracks, however, the party discovers a few more rooms dug out of the rock. First is what appears to be a supply room. Some decayed sundries are scattered around the floor, but there is also a rotted, broken chest filled with a massive pile of gold pieces. The party also finds a magical Bag of Holding in the room.
Moving on, the party finds a small library that had been maintained for the watchtower. Some of the ancient texts have crumbled to dust on the shelves, but many books and scrolls made of well-crafted, thick papyrus survived just fine. The party finds, belatedly, numerous writings on how to operate the Energy Array, and how to analyze the elemental magics of the Arinfax Colossus’s defenses in order to set the control dials correctly. They also find a number of arcane texts, from which Erik is able to glean instructions on a few magical rituals – Arcane Lock, Knock, and Object Reading. The rest of the books and scrolls seem to just be assorted history books on the dwarven lands of Arnathon, the Boundary Lands, and the nation of Quinalyn.
Invicto, however, comes across an interesting scroll in the library that catches his eye. It appears to be a request for supplies written by a wizard who was stationed in the tower. The wizard writes of discovering a black arts book on an Ogre Mage when a patrol from the watchtower encountered a band of creatures from the Torin Plains. The book apparently included an arcane ‘recipe’ for constructing a magic item without using expensive residuum. The ritual requires a number of very mundane arcane components, as well as the three tongues from the three different heads of a chimera, and the blood of either a demon or a warlock with an infernal pact. Fitting the bill for one of those requirements, Invicto realizes he could craft this item himself if he was simply able to slay a chimera. The wizard speaks of using the arcane recipe to craft a very powerful wand, though Invicto believes he could easily modify the process to produce an arcane rod which he could use. The supply request mentions that chimeras are very rare but can be occasionally found in the Torin Plains, though they are also sometimes captured and used in the gladiator arenas of the Jeweled Cities.
Continuing past the library, the party finds one more room down the passage – an ancient dwarven tomb. The tomb is for the dwarven hero, Kradran, who in his last days volunteered to be stationed at the watchtower and helped defend the tower against an attack by an entire tribe of orcs and ogres. Kradran must have been a dwarven hero of only small reputation in his time, as no party member recognizes the name. They do notice however, that Kradran was buried with a magical battleaxe that is simply brimming with radiant energy. The Zaza picks up the weapon and immediately senses the intelligent will embodied within the weapon. It is a magical artifact, the Axe of Light, and it exists to destroy undead and the dark necrotic energy that empowers them. The Zaza agrees with the aims of the weapon, as she, and her deity Melora, have always loathed the unnatural creation of undead creatures. The Zaza wields the weapon proudly, excited at the chance to use its blade against the undead.
The party continues down the spiral staircase and is able to walk all the way down to the first floor of the watchtower. There they find that the key they found around the neck of the soldier’s corpse unlocks a magically hidden door that opens directly into the main room of the first floor of the watchtower. The party summarily decides that this route would have been much better than the path they took, but can do nothing about it now…
A Dark Night
They return to the top of the watchtower and use the view screen to check in on the battle at Verind’s Edge. The party can see some citizens trying to flee out of the city eastward into the country side, pursued by roving bands of orcs and goblins. They decide to find out what else they can see using the magical view screen and begin redirecting it to other areas. They attempt to look in on the hideout of the Dead Hand Bandits, but find that the mountains to the northeast of the watchtower block their view.
They then scroll the view screen to the southwest, attempting to zoom in on the tower of Lord Dread. They find that the crystalline telescope does have a limit as they get several days’ travel southwest of Verind’s Edge and are unable to zoom any farther. However, the party does spy something of interest. As they skim their view in the direction of Lord Dread’s domain they notice there are numerous groups of undead, traveling in packs of thirty of forty, headed from the direction of Lord Dread’s keep towards Verind’s Edge. The closest group is only a couple days’ travel from the city, though they will not arrive before the battle is finished. The party speculates as to whether the undead creatures were intended to arrive in time to join in the battle, or whether they were intended to arrive specifically after the battle to pursue some dark, necrotic goal using the hundreds and thousands of corpses left in the aftermath. Since Lord Dread has never before mettled in the affairs of the Boundary Lands, they settle on the latter.
As night falls, the party settles in for a much needed rest, though they have no idea what tomorrow will bring.
What Next?
The party awakens in the morning and gathers together to discuss what to do next. Clearly, their role with the Empire of Nerath is no more, as the Empire itself was crushed before their very eyes yesterday. For many years the party has been told what to do and where to go, but it appears that now they are on their own. Erik is certain that Queen Larindra and his son are dead, and he decides that there is no longer any reason to keep those events to himself. He comes clean to the party and tells them about his encounter with the Queen and his discovery that he was a father. The party is stunned, but quickly offers Erik sympathy for the loss of his son.
The party comes to realize that, while Verind’s Edge offered them a home as well as a chance at fame and adventure, it truly was a small city tucked away in the far corner of the
known world. The party takes stock of the great, wide world before them, and considers a variety of options in where to go and what to do next.
- The Jeweled Cities
- Hak’apoor, a merchant and trader, offered Charm and the rest of the party work in the Jeweled Cities.
- The Zaza’s twin brother, Daza, may be alive as a slave in the gladiator arenas of the Jeweled Cities.
- Invicto is interested in finding a chimera in order to craft a magical rod, and one may be found in the gladiator arenas in the Jeweled Cities.
- Quinalyn
- Erik’s adoptive father, Varna, asked him to visit him in Quinalyn.
- The party could research the Shadar-kai that attacked them and/or the “Keystone Mortalis” with the famous sages and libraries in the Quinlalyn city of Arastur.
- The Fiefdom of Uthrin
- Erik could pay a visit to his birth mother, the wife of Sir Uthrin, and/or try to discover the identity of his true father.
- The party could seek vengeance on Sir Uthrin and his fiefdom for preventing aid from reaching Verind’s Edge.
- Verind’s Edge
- The party could look for survivors from the battle at Verind’s Edge.
- Other Places
- The party could seek vengeance on the Dead Hand Bandits.
- Fargrim and the party could seek out the famed dwarven Hammer of Tharmak mentioned in the watchtower soldier’s journal, and use it to try to reunite the dwarven clans of Arnathon.
- The party could speak to Lord Dread about and/or try to procure the “Keystone Mortalis” which they handed over to him.
The party debates for a time about what to do next. The Zaza eagerly insists the party should travel to the Jeweled Cities, as she is excited about the chance to possibly discover any clues as to the fate of her twin brother, Daza. Charm and Invicto are both interested in going to the Jeweled Cities as well, Charm to pursue work with the merchant Hak’apoor, and Invicto to possibly seek out a chimera in the gladiator arenas. The entire party expresses interest in paying back Sir Uthrin for his numerous transgressions against Verind’s Edge, but the party’s not too sure what they would do once they arrived in the city of Uthrin.
Fargrim insists that the party pursue the legendary Hammer of Tharmak to unite the dwarven clans of Arnathon, but the rest of the party has their doubts about the accuracy of the journal’s clues since they are now a thousand years old. Erik is interested in returning to Quinalyn to visit his adoptive father, and to consult with the sages in Arastur, and the party would have to journey through Quinalyn on their way to the Jeweled Cities. In fact, the most direct path would actually be to take ship from Arastur. After a long period of arguing, and a promise to pursue the Hammer of Tharmak some time in the future, the party agrees to head through Quinalyn to the Jeweled Cities.
Survivors
Everyone begins packing up and preparing to leave, but the party decides to take one last look through the crystal view screen in the top of the tower before leaving. Scanning the foothills leading up to the mountains, the party spies a group of humanoids making their way towards the mountains. Zooming in, the party is surprised to recognize the group. It consists of the goliath bard, Mujeh; the halfing rescued from the Feywild city of Calipha, Lock; a soldier of Verind’s Edge, Old Breddy; the young girl from Ramshead whose mother was killed by Raver, Lucinda; and another figure the party does not recognize. By her appearance, she appears to be a human cleric of Pelor. The group is a surprising collection of some of the party’s closest friends from Verind’s Edge, and they are elated that the group has survived and are headed towards the party’s location.
The party is especially excited to see that Old Breddy survived, as he was the only citizen of Verind’s Edge that the party seemed to be truly concerned about. They do take a moment to express their collective disappointment about the fact that Old Breddy doesn’t spell his name ‘Old Bready’. They really think he would be an immensely more popular person if he would spell his name differently. Nonetheless, they are all ecstatic at the chance to reunite with the surly old veteran soldier.
Unfortunately, in scanning the countryside, the party sees a small group of goblinoids that clearly appears to be trailing the group. Orcs, goblins, and even a couple ogres are closing in on the group of Verind’s Edge survivors. The monsters are an hour or two behind, but the beastial goblinoids are used to the rigors of wilderness travel and are clearly gaining on the small group of humanoids.
The party studies the terrain between the watchtower and the group of their friends, and they quickly depart to intercept them. There are many twists and turns to the rocky hillsides they must traverse to reach the group of survivors, but The Zaza’s wilderness expertise is impressive as she swiftly directs the party along the correct path. After a few hours of travel, the party is able to reach their friends before the goblinoids do.
As excited as the party is to reach their friends, the survivors from Verind’s Edge are ecstatic at the sight of the party members. Mujeh fills the party in on what brought this ragtag group together. He introduces the cleric of Pelor to the party as Janna. Apparently she was a recent addition to the temple in Verind’s Edge. While there, she was caring for the numerous villagers being brought from the surrounding villages into the protection of the city in preparation for war with the goblinoid army. She came across Lucinda, who arrived with the other villagers from Ramshead. The girl had no family of her own, but insisted that she wanted to speak to Charm and The Zaza. Janna asked around for anyone matching the girl’s description, and was eventually led to Old Breddy who knew the adventurers the girl was looking for.
Old Breddy has spent plenty of late nights in a tavern with the party, and thus has gotten to know Mujeh fairly well, as the bard has been perpetually hanging around the party members. He spoke with Mujeh to find out where the party went and Mujeh eventually was able to speak with Court Wizard Davos about the party’s whereabouts. Mujeh was nervous about the city’s ability to withstand an attack from the Arinfax Colossus, and the bard harbors a growing suspicion that if he wants to witness a great story, he should be spending more time with the party on their various quests. So, Mujeh decided to head out of the city the day before the Colossus arrived to journey into the mountains to find the party and the watchtower they were seeking out.
Lock, having been introduced to Mujeh and knowing no one else in the city, has been simply following the goliath around, so he resolved to accompany Mujeh on his journey to find the party. The halfling also insisted he wanted to rejoin the party to fulfill his pledge to serve them in any way he can, since he owes them his life. Old Breddy agreed with Mujeh that the safest place to be might not be in Verind’s Edge, and since the veteran soldier is past the age to be of any good in a battle, he decided to accompany Mujeh to find the party. With no one else to care for her, Old Breddy took pity on Lucinda and offered to bring her along to find the party. Janna was surprisingly excited to join Old Breddy on the journey as well. The cleric was apparently very interested in meeting the party after hearing of their various exploits, so the entire group made its way out of the city towards the mountains to the north.
The party is happy to catch up, but insists that they must get moving as there is a band of goblinoids fast approaching. The party decides to head back up into the mountains. There they should be able to find a good hiding spot for the group of survivors to hole up in while the party takes care of the pursuing goblinoids.
As the party begins travelling, Lucinda is initially shy about greeting the party, but eventually Charm and The Zaza are able to coax her out of her shell. The girl says she feels safe around the party and is very grateful to have found them. Speaking with The Zaza for a while, she mentions that she still has nightmares about the man who killed her mother. Lucinda is still scared that the man will come for her one day. The Zaza proudly assures Lucinda that that isn’t possible because she killed the man herself. Lucinda’s eyes widen in disbelief, and The Zaza assures the girl that Raver is dead and gone and will never be able to harm her. The girl hugs The Zaza gratefully.
True to Mujeh’s introduction, Janna is very interested in hearing about the party’s exploits. As the party hikes through the mountains she accosts the party with a barrage of questions about the various quests and missions the party has been on. The topic of the Keystone Mortalis and Lord Dread comes up, and the cleric seems especially interested to hear the details of this story. She knows nothing of Lord Dread herself, so the party fills her in on what they know of the loner necromancer. Janna is shocked that the party handed over a powerful, dark artifact to an evil master of the undead. She insists that the party should make haste to travel straight to Lord Dread’s keep so that they can retrieve the artifact, but the party regretfully informs her that they are headed to the Jeweled Cities. Janna asks for details about the exact location and layout of Lord Dread’s keep so that she can try to obtain the artifact herself. The party is shocked at the cleric’s ambition, but wish her good luck and provide all the details they can, including the passphrase to get by the guardians in the valley surrounding Lord Dread’s keep.
After travelling further back up into the mountains, the party sends the group of Verind’s Edge survivors on to find a suitable hiding spot while they look for a good ambush spot to do battle with the pursuing group of goblinoids. They ask Old Breddy, Janna, and Mujeh if they want to join in the fight, but they all think it would be best if they stay with the defenseless Lock and Lucinda in case any stragglers from the battle happen upon them. The party accepts the decision and assures the group they will see them in a few hours after they have taken care of their pursuers.